在法属殖民地炎热夏季里的稻田堤坝又一次被雨水冲毁,母亲(伊莎贝尔•于佩尔Isabelle Ann Huppert 饰)的土地盐碱化严重不能种植,一家人的拮据生活这使她忧心忡忡。一日她同儿子约瑟夫(Gaspard Ulliel 饰),女儿苏珊(Astrid Berges-Frisbey 饰)到镇上的酒馆喝酒,认识了来到此地的中国人诺先生。诺先生喜欢上了美丽的苏珊,在母亲和哥哥的眼里诺先生只是一个虚情假意自私自利的资本家,苏珊因此游移不定,不知道自己要的是什么。值此政府的发布命令对村庄里的田地进行限制回收,母亲写信给总督先生希望能够获得土地的永久使用权,回信却只有延长一年的答复。约瑟夫开始做起走私货物来改变生活...... 本片改编自玛格丽特•杜拉斯的小说。French Indochina, 1931. In the Gulf of Siam, a Widow and her two children, Joseph, 2o, and Suzanne, 16, barely survive by exploiting rice fields located much too close to the ocean. Every year their crops are flooded and their only hope lies in the construction of a seawall. The mother refuses to give up and desperately battles both the sea and the corrupt colonial bureaucrats ...